From: Restoring a Link to Nature
New Ideas From the Past
The concept of wetland parks in South Los Angeles is not as alien as might at first seem. Ted Trzyna, president of the California Institute of Public Affairs, wrote in the 2005 book, The Urban Imperative, “Los Angeles sits on a wide coastal plain crossed by a network of streams that flow from the mountains to the sea.”
“These water courses would have been an ideal foundation for a system of parks including natural riparian habitat,” writes Trzyna. “In fact, this was one of the principal recommendations of a visionary regional park plan commissioned by a citizens’ committee and published in 1930.” According to Trzyna, the parks would serve two purposes: outdoor recreation and percolation of stormwater into the ground.
However, the recommendations were not adopted, and from the 1930s through the 1970s, Los Angeles, like many cities, instead chose to confine its urban streams to narrow channels, according to Trzyna, to maximize the square footage of adjacent lots. The land use pattern, however, now makes it very difficult to restore any semblance of the original riparian ecosystem.
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Perhaps it is more than a coincidence when Perry points out, “This area, where these wetlands are going to be, is topographically part of a historic riverbed. So it makes sense to put them in these areas.”
November-December 2009
From: Restoring a Link to Nature
New Ideas From the Past
The concept of wetland parks in South Los Angeles is not as alien as might at first seem. Ted Trzyna, president of the California Institute of Public Affairs, wrote in the 2005 book, The Urban Imperative, “Los Angeles sits on a wide coastal plain crossed by a network of streams that flow from the mountains to the sea.”
“These water courses would have been an ideal foundation for a system of parks including natural riparian habitat,” writes Trzyna. “In fact, this was one of the principal recommendations of a visionary regional park plan commissioned by a citizens’ committee and published in 1930.” According to Trzyna, the parks would serve two purposes: outdoor recreation and percolation of stormwater into the ground.
However, the recommendations were not adopted, and from the 1930s through the 1970s, Los Angeles, like many cities, instead chose to confine its urban streams to narrow channels, according to Trzyna, to maximize the square footage of adjacent lots. The land use pattern, however, now makes it very difficult to restore any semblance of the original riparian ecosystem.
Perhaps it is more than a coincidence when Perry points out, “This area, where these wetlands are going to be, is topographically part of a historic riverbed. So it makes sense to put them in these areas.”